Poor prospects

A World Bank report, called Growth, Poverty and Inequality: Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union, shows that in 2003 there were as many as 61 million people living in poverty in the CEE region, which accounts for almost 12 percent of its overall population.

In order to limit poverty, Poland and the other new members of the EU need multi-annum GDP growth of 6.6 percent. However, according to analysts, GDP will grow at 4.3 percent in 2007, which doesn't encourage much optimism.

"We expect that with the current GDP growth rate 40 million people will still be living in poverty in 2007 and more than 110 million will be vulnerable to poverty, which is not much better," said Asad Alam, head of the team working on the report.

Since 1998, absolute poverty, where the average daily wage is at or below $2.15 (zł.6.30) a day, has declined in most countries in the region. The decline was especially spectacular in countries such as Russia and Kazakhstan. These states had the biggest gap to bridge and there was a switch in income distribution towards the poor.

In Poland and Georgia, on the other hand, income distribution remained unchanged and the level of poverty even slightly increased. This is caused by large imbalances in the development of particular regions and social groups, as well as a high unemployment rate.